Crash of troop carrying plane in 1954

Thanks for the info Eric.

A few years ago a friend of mine tried to find out which building at Aldermaston airfield was used by Eagle as the passenger terminal, however he was unsuccessful.

Almost all the old war time buildings at Aldermaston were still extant until not very long ago. The control tower went this year.

Eagle Group of Companies Archives Aldermaston

I work at AWE Aldermaston. I was told Eagle Airways were based here at one time after the war before the Atomic people took over the old airfield in the ’50s, anyone got any info on this?

Eagle Aviation Ltd operated out of Aldermaston from August 1949 until April 1950.
According to Flight Mag. Jan 1950 three York aircraft were purchased from BOAC and converted for freighter/passenger operation at Aldermaston. Eagle had arrived from Bovington and moved on to Luton after their short stay at Aldermanston.
From the Eagle archives

I am looking into the air disaster involving ‘Vickers Viking’ The investigation pointed to pilot error following an engine failure. I have found information regarding this aircraft, that indicates out of the 167 manufactured 57 of these aircrafts were involved in incidents. My thinking is this is a very high ratio and perhaps more is known about the reliability of this aircraft than was available in 1957. Can anyone shed any light on this incident (1st May 1957) or on the make of aircraft itself. Does anyone have any information regarding the survivor of the crash 2nd Lt Ernest Taylor RE? Thanks Elaine

Elaine
I dont think the Vickers Viking, which was a decendant of the wartime Wellington bomber, had an accident record that was much different than other similar aircraft of the period.
Aircraft at that time had much lower levels of reserve engine power and therefore a engine failure was far more significant, the ability to maintain height was not always possible especially if the aircraft was heavily loaded as this one would have been.
I see that the pilot was blamed which I think sounds very unfair as the suspected engine failure only happened two minutes into the flight, so they would have only climbed to a 1000 feet or so before it happened. To fly a circuit and get back on the ground again, in the dark, would have been nearly impossible.
What was considered acceptable in regards risk on those days would not be allowed now.

Richard

A reminder there is a good history here http://www.britisheagle.net/History-Eagle-Airways.htm

I work at AWE Aldermaston. I was told Eagle Airways were based here at one time after the war before the Atomic people took over the old airfield in the ’50s, anyone got any info on this?

1st May 1957 G-AJBO

Eagle Aviation Viking G-AJBO on Charter to War Office Crash at Star Hill near Blackbushe airport on May 1st 1957. 34 of 35on board killed Sole survivor 2nd Lt Ernest Edward Taylor.

Troops fro Royal Army ordance Corp

Aircraft was Bound For Tripoli

http://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19570501-0

I am looking into the air disaster involving ‘Vickers Viking’ The investigation pointed to pilot error following an engine failure. I have found information regarding this aircraft, that indicates out of the 167 manufactured 57 of these aircrafts were involved in incidents. My thinking is this is a very high ratio and perhaps more is known about the reliability of this aircraft than was available in 1957. Can anyone shed any light on this incident (1st May 1957) or on the make of aircraft itself. Does anyone have any information regarding the survivor of the crash 2nd Lt Ernest Taylor RE? Thanks Elaine

Give us more stories please Dennis. there’s no telling, some of them could constitute “I Learned About Flying From That” stories and prevent someone from repeating the mistakes – albeit not in a Viking.

Please….more Eagle stories and pics

DC

Sorry folks – Stavanger crash was G-AHPM another Eagle friend of mine not G-AMGG which was written off somewhere else. Dennis

G-AJBO G-AMGG and others.

Sorry – Skipper on G-AMGG was Phil Watts not Cliff Watts. Further to that, we were on our way to Gibraltar via Madrid (Barajas) Civil Airport. Skipper was the same Phil Watts who had been ‘bumped” up from First Officer. We were wandering along the airway at our assigned Flight Level all asleep naturally when I noticed that we were drifting either up or down from our flight level to a considerable degree. I told Phil who had not noticed this??? He then made the trim corrections and we all settled down to sleep again!!! Him, me and the F/O.
I called finals at Madrid but was advised that the tower couldn’t see us! This was because our skipper had lined us up on finals for Madrid Military Airport. How we managed this I will never know ‘cos we were on the ADF compass frequency for the civil airport and the needle never lied!!! Then there was the QFE climb to land at Benina (Benghazi) but that’s another story . I do have a disc of the Eagle Viking fleet which I use as a screensaver and the odd photograph or two. I have a story about a Eagle landing at Farnborough instead of Blackbushe but that can wait. Dennis.;

Thanks for adding to a quiet thread and welcome to the Forum. Unfortunately the original poster has disappeared over the horizon and may not see your post.

It looks as though you might have some historic pictures from that era?

Fate + G-AJBO

I was at Blackbushe on the evening that G-AJBO went in. I was the Radio Officer on an Eagle flight bound for Lagos. The Radio Officer on G-AJBO (Cliff Robertson) was late checking in for his flight so I was asked to carry out the ground radio preflight checks on G-AJBO so as not to delay its departure. We were “down the line” when we got the news! Skipper was Denis Jones. On a previous flight on G-AJBO we had experienced engine trouble whilst abeam Cagliari and logged it. At Luqa (Malta) our destination,the ground engineers cleared her to fly and we did to Nicosia via Idris, Benina and El Adem (Tobruk) without incident. The O/s question we all asked was why the skipper chose to turn in for landing on the “dead” engine. Another mate of mine Cliff Watts the skipper was killed on G-AMGG at Stavanger Norway with a payload of school children.
Also in a separate incident we lost hydraulics at Ajaccio on a Bristol Freighter, skipper “Billy’ McCash. We decided to “press on” and “ran off” the end of 26 at Blackbushe! I was out of the hatch before the “fire wagons” arrived. Whoops!! Loved Eagle, a happy family! Dennis Phillips

I flew back from El Adem to Blackbush in G-AJBO in Oct 56 at the end of my Nat Svc. Eagle operated the Med-Air schedules at the time. As we flogged up across the Med I got (as a Met Man) to sit in Co’s seat for half an hour. As we entered a small Cu (Type 2) cloud the Skipper advised me to move my left knee slightly to the right. I asked why. 30 seconds after we entered the cloud water started to drip on to where my knee would have been. “We’ve been trying to find that leak, and fix it, for weeks” quothe the Skipper!
Those were the days when real aeroplanes had fans on the front and flew through the weather, not over it.
Peter Davies

Many thanks

Thanks for your really helpful replies. This certainly seems to be the one- funny how easily family memories can place things in the wrong year.

MartinL

Eagle Aviation Viking G-AJBO on Charter to War Office Crash at Star Hill near Blackbushe airport on May 1st 1957. 34 of 35on board killed Sole survivor 2nd Lt Ernest Edward Taylor.

Troops fro Royal Army ordance Corp

Aircraft was Bound For Tripoli

http://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19570501-0

There were an awful lot of accidents in 1954, 142 recorded as per the link, the accidents in Hertfordshire or Wiltshire seem closest to your description.

Addt. Welcome to the Forum!:)

http://aviation-safety.net/database/dblist.php?Year=1954&lang=&page=1